brutally beaten. police suspect her husband, a prominent scientist and he says he was out of town at the time and she doesn't remember. we're digging deeper. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com mitt romney's latest campaign ads are full of pledges about what he'd do on day one of his presidency, but our reality check shows he'd have to wake up extra, extra early on january 20th to start on that to-do list. it's a long list. our national political correspondent jim acosta is joining us. here's the question, jim. can mitt romney really do all he says he would do on day one? >> reporter: that certainly is the question, wolf. according to his new ads, mitt romney will be a busy man in his

first full day in the white house and he will need all 24 hours to get through all of his day one promises. >> what would a romney presidency be like? >> reporter: in his latest tv ad mitt romney lays out an ambitious agenda, he demands they play by the rules. >> reporter: it's romney's second day-one ad and he would not only confront china on trade, but seek business regulations and push for tax cuts and -- >> president romney issues an order to replace obama care with common sense, health care. >> that's such a big to-do list, they might want to start loading up on caffeine. >> i don't think cav seen enough. probably a full carton of no-doze. i don't think they believe that he can accomplish this in the first 24 hours in office.

he can begin the process, but that is all. >> reporter: traditionally on day one, presidents are busy, but with the inauguration, the parades and the parties and his first full day on the job, the most significant thing president obama did was order pay freezes for white house staff. >> so help me god. >> reporter: president bush on his first full day signed an executive order banning tax dollars from going to international planning groups that promote abortion. one former aide to president nixon told white house staff he couldn't find the presidential pens. it could be like the first day at school. these days it seems that the romney and obama campaigns are trying out different messages on education. romney made the case to a charter school that smaller class sizes don't equal performance. >> we have 351 cities in town. let's compare the average classroom size from each school

district with the performance of our students because we'll test our kids and we'll see if there was a relationship and there is not. >> he got an earful on that from teachers in the room. >> i can't think of any teacher in the whole time i've been teaching, 13 years, who would say more students would benefit them. >>. >> reporter: his new web video hits him for what he said last year. >> corporations are people, my friend. >> reporter: and connecting it to bush. >> why is he running around with the same bad ideas that brought our economy to collapse this last time out? >> reporter: romney said there's a reason why the president is attacking his career. >> there's no question, but that he's attacking capitalism. >> reporter: speaking of trying out new things, get this, mitt romney says if you donate money to his campaign you will be entered into a dinner with him and donald trump.

the winner gets a ride in a trump vehicle, a night in the trump tower and a tour of the boardroom of the celebrity apprentice set and dinner with romney and the donald. take that, george clooney. >> the president has a similar raffle. he could go to dinner with he and george clooney at the fund-raiser a few weeks ago. looks like they're trying to use the same gimmicks. >> donald trump, george clooney, what do you think? >> hard to pick, maybe gloria can tell us who she'd pick. >> our chief political -- >> george clooney, donald trump, i think you know my answer. >> day one, mitt romney has a long list of things he's going to do. >> not going to sleep much. >> that's dangerous and risky to do. >> this is a p.r. device.

what he's saying is these are the things i want to do because he wants to be clear with the american people how he differs from barack obama and should he decide to issue executive orders which he probably would, he should look back to what happened to president-elect obama. remember president-elect obama one of the first things he did was restrict access to the white house, close the revolving door and eventually he had to make exceptions for people he wanted to put into his administration, also, as you very well know, wolf, the closing of guantanamo bay by executive order. seems to me congress had a different idea and that still has not occurred. that can boomerang for you and some people might say to the president, you promised that on day one, what happened? >> those commitments could happen again if romney is elected. >> that's right, but congress always, whether it's a democrat

or republican, congress believes it actually has something to say in these matters. >> that's what with we've all learned. look at the polls from nbc news and maris polls in battleground states that are the most important, ohio has president obama at 48% and romney 42%. let's go to virginia. 48%, 44%. florida, right now in this poll, 48% for obama, 44% for romney and in all of the three polls 3% sampling error, is it too early, though? i think the answer is yes for the president and his supporters to start celebrating. >> asked and answered. there was another poll taken at the same time in the state of florida. quinnipiac university and you see the registered voters and there is a six-point difference in favor of mitt romney so the pollsters can argue about their

samples and which is more accurate and which are more heavily weighted for democrats and republicans. actually, mitt romney needs to win them all if he's going to have a clear path to 270 electoral votes, so that's ohio, florida, and virginia. president obama on the other hand has lots of different ways to get to 270 because he's got more support in the west that he's going to try and draw like in the state of colorado and maybe in the state of arizona. certainly new mexico. so he probably has to win one of these three states, but mitt romney really needs to have a trifecta here, if he's going to have a path. >> i think in my own sense, based on history and what is going on, the president will have the most difficult times in florida and in virginia. ohio, i think he has a little bit better chance because he helped salvage the auto industry and there are so many

auto-related jobs in ohio that might work well for him. >> and virginia is also another very tough battleground which the president won last time around. he wants to keep it. the republicans believe they have a lot of hope there, and by the way, they believe they had a lot of hope in the state of florida. what if jeb bush were on the ticket with mitt romney? that might help him out. >> that might not only help him in florida, but help him with hispanics. gloria, thanks very much. >> let's go to jack with "the cafferty file." right about now, wolf, democrats are hoping they hadn't picked north carolina as the site for this summer's convention. when he selected north carolina it seemed like a smart way to double down on the state that propelled the victory since 2008. north carolina hasn't gone to the democrats since jimmy carter and the list of problems seems

pretty long, for example, north carolina voters overwhelmingly approve the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage at about the same time that president obama was saying he thinks it's a good idea. now gay rights activists want the convention moved out of north carolina, practically impossible to do at this point. unemployment in the tar heel state, 9.4%, far above the national average, plus who dreamed this up? president obama will give his convention speech in bank of america stadium. perfect -- not! then there are the unions and one of the democrats, key voting blocs are in north carolina and that is because there are no unionized hotels and north carolina has the largest proportion of union membership in the country. to top it all off there are two sex scandals in two democrats. the trial of john edwards and

the ongoing investigation of the chair david parker. the obama political operation used to be better than this. here's the question. was it a mistake for democrats to pick north carolina for their convention? >> go to cnn.com/cafferty file or go to the post on "the situation room's" facebook page, but three and a half years later, maybe not. >> things have changed a lot. >> sure. a close call on a nuclear submarine. fire breaks out less than a hundred feet from the reactor while the vessel is docked just a few dozen miles from a major city and does president obama have the lowest spending record than any president in more than half a century. we're checking a claim that's quickly gone rieral. he works for the conservative think tank, but he's blaming republicans for the dysfunction in washington. what's with you?

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a fire rages for a dozen hours aboard a nuclear-powered submarine sending thick smoke over the naval shipyard in maine. seven people were injured in the blaze. our pentagon correspondent chris lawrence is joining us with the details. chris, how dangerous could this have been? >> wolf, if it had gone into a different part of the ship, this could have been dangerous indeed because this particular sub is powered by a nuclear reactor.

>> reporter: the submarine's crew couldn't stop it alone. neither could the shipyard fire department. so the fire kept burning, less than a few hundred feet from a nuclear reactor onboard and more than 60 miles from boston. the "uss miami" was docked for repairs with no torpedos or weapons onboard. >> the reactor is in a complete shutdown condition. >> reporter: subs like this are divided into watertight compartments. the fire started in the forward area where most of the crew lives and that part had to be evacuated. the after compartment houses the nuclear reactor and propulsion team. >> they did not need to evacuate the ship. they were able to maintain their watch stations in the propulsion plan. >> imagine working in a three-story building that's only 30 feet wide. no windows, 80% of it crammed full of machinery, now imagine

fighting a fire in those conditions. >> the temperature is very high. caustic fumes and smoke-filled compartment. heroes respond to those kind of situations to save the ship. >> there was a skeleton crew onboard. experts say if the fire ignited out at see, the full crew could have put it out faster. if the fire started out in the nuclear reactor area, the real danger would have come from radiation exposure, not an explosion. >> the submarine reactors have very high enrichment levels, nearly bomb grade, but not too bomb grade. so close doesn't count each though they have highly enriched cores, much higher than, say iran is enriching and they're not quite to bomb level so you will not get a detonation. >> reporter: so under normal conditions, a crew member onboard a sub is exposed to radiation like we are just

walking outside in the sun, but all of the crew members do have these radiation detectors on them that periodically are checked just to make sure they aren't receiving too much radiation. i spoke to a former sub commander who said he's never heard of a fire burning that long 12 hours out at sea like this one did in port. he told me flat-out wolf, the crew wouldn't last that long. >> very scary. do we know how the fire start? >> reporter: still under investigation and they had to vent out the ship in order to get the teams in there to investigate that. >> i'm sure there will be a full investigation in this one. lessons learned. thank you very much, chris lawrence. >> an unlikely ally coming to the aide of cargo ships attacked by pirates. lisa sylvester is monitoring that and other top stories in "the situation room." they chased off armed pirates in the gulf of oman. according to state media, the

pirates scattered when vessels responded to a distress signal and the state department is confirming that report. elton john has canceled concerts after being hospitalized in los angeles after a respiratory infection. john felt ill while performing a concert and his publicist says he is out of the hospital with orders to rest for at least a week. >> the dow fell .1% and the tech-heavy nasdaq slipped a half a percentage point. experts say investors are concerned about europe's debt crisis as well as new statistics from the u.s. on hiring durable goods orders. >> more news about facebook and no, it's not about the company's troubles on wall street. it's a new camera for the new iphone and ipad, it allows users

to edit photos. and today is the first big tech rollout from the company since going public. and this, a photo of former president bill clinton posing with a pair of porn stars is raising some eyebrows. tmz.com reports that the photo was taken at a casino in monaco where clinton was attending a fund-raising event for the foundation. one of the actresses posted a photo on -- and it is not clear if he was aware of their profession. >> people take pictures. what can you do? stuff happens. so is president obama tight with taxpayer money? we're checking a new claim that he has the low of the spending racked in half a century. >> is the gop to blame for the

misfunction in washington? it's coming from a scholar and conservative think tank in washington. >> a castro comes to the united states and reportedly comes out in favor of president obama's re-election. that and a lot more coming up in our "strategy session." ♪

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because you never know what lies around the corner. to get a free quote, call... visit a local office, or go to libertymutual.com today. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? republicans are blasting president obama as a big spender, but does he really have the lowest, the lowest spending record of any president in more than half a century? our mary snow has been digging into the claim that's now gone viral. mary, what have you learned? >> wolf, this claim that the president has overseen the lowest growth in 60 years. the white house quickly embraced it, but critics say the math isn't as cut and dry as it's made out to be.

>> reporter: on the campaign trail republican presidential hopeful mitt romney often targets the president's spending. the president is now firing back with this. >> my opponent won't admit it, but it's been starting to appear in places real liberal outlets like "the wall street journal" since i've been president, federal spending has risen at the lowest pace in nearly 60 years. >> reporter: what's behind the president's comments is market watch which has an affiliation with "the wall street journal," its title, the obama spending binge never happened. obama seized on it and it went viral. politi fact, it compared presidents and found spending under obama grew 1.4% annually and it gave a mostly true rating that under obama there was the

slowest federal spending in six decades, putting him second under president eisenhower. >> debt has gone up quite significantly over the same period of time and then federal spending as a gross domestic product is higher now than it has been under most of the recent presidents. >> reporter: but critics call the numbers fuzzy math. brian darling of the conservative leaning heritage foundation says it ties too much spending in 2009 to president obama and it gives a false impression of spending levels under president obama. >> the bottom line is if you take 2009 years and attribute it to bush rather than president obama who is responsible for most of the spending in 2009, it does make it look like he's restrained spending. >> reporter: to be clear, the original analysis did account for $140 billion in spending in

2009 transferring from president bush's spending to president obama's spending, but critics say it doesn't go far enough. >> the debate will continue. thanks very much. there are a pair of veteran scholars from a liberal think tank and one from a conservative think tank and they sent out shock waves when they said the republicans are mostly to blame for the gridlock and dysfunction in washington. >> he's the co-author of a brand new book entitled it's even worse than it looks. it's a powerful new book, and i highly recommend it, but norm, let's talk about what you say because i was pretty surprised to hear your bottom line. let me read a couple of lines that you and tom wrote in "the washington post" recently. we've been studying washington and congress for 40 years and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. in the past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believe it was warranted and

today we have no choice to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the republican party. the gop has become an insurgent outlier in american politics and scornful of compromise and unmoved by conventional understanding of facts and evidence and science and dismissive of the legitimacy of the political opposition. i read that and that's pretty strong stuff from you. give us a sentence or two why you say that? >> you know, it wasn't an easy thing for us to say, wolf because we've tried to be impeccable. we call them as we see them, but we believe the problems of the country such as they are and after 32 years of being immersed in politics from pennsylvania avenue to the other, that what we now have is imbalance. we have parliamentary parties, but we have one party that's gone toward the edge of the process enough that it's more concerned with blocking anything

done by the democrats and the incumbent than in trying to find compromise and work toward solutions and no better example of this than what richard murdoch, the man who knocked off dick lugar, no moderate, and a real conservative and a problem solver in indiana just last week. >> he doesn't want to compromise, but you basically blame a lot of the problems right now in two individuals, newt gingrich and grover norquist. >> yea, and i think there's a lot of blame to go around. let me add that it's not like there are any angels here. neither party is blameless, but it's an 80/20 mix now and some of it goes back to what newt did to break the stranglehold the democrats had on the house of representatives in 16 years. we've got to destroy this institution in order to save it and along the way it engendered

a lot of the tribal politics that we have now. marry that to the pledge. the grover norquist pledge that 95% or more of republicans in the house and senate signed and you can't solve our debt problem as simpson bowles, the gang of six in the senate and any group that tried to span the sector said must include some revenues and if you said my way or the highway, not a dime in revenues. >> listen to allen west in florida is obviously a favorite of the tea party. listen to this. >> i believe there are 78 to 81 members of the -- >> in case our viewers didn't hear that. there are 78 to 81 members of the democratic party are members of the communist party. he's not backing away from that at all, but that was pretty

shocking, a, but what was even more shocking to you and you point this out. >> yea, and it basically is, you get statements like that and you have people that say outrageous things in many cases and not a single member of the republican leadership or establishment from the speaker of the house to the republican candidate for president condemned what was joe mccarthy reincarnated here. it was an outrageous thing to say. it's still a smear to call someone a member of the communist party and then you didn't have anyone standing up here that tells us even those people who would presumably solve problems or move to the center right which is where the republican party had been are not going to step up when you get extreme things said. the fact that west isn't backing down tells us there isn't a sense of shame anymore, you double down. that's some way to reach some sort of common ground and

collaborate, to solve problems are not going to be done unless you find common ground. >> i'm sure at the american enterprise institute it's a conservative think tank in washington. >> some of my colleagues are not happy and some have written rejoiners and mostly, everybody has been disappointed and whether they agree or disagree, they're very happy that tom and i have done a book that is grabbing a lot of attention and selling copies. i've always been left alone to do and think and say whatever i want, whether people like it or not and let's face it, wolf, a part of this is tom and i built a lot of capital over 40 years of studying this and being straight shooters and now we spent capital doing something and saying something that's pretty controversial and we'll draw some lines that a lot of people aren't going to like because we felt it was time and necessary to do it. >> the book is entitled, it's

even worse than it looks and the co-author normorenstein and the other tom mann. thanks very much. >> thank you, wolf. always a pleasure. the chairman of the democratic national krity is criticizing, yes, critizing the obama administration for allowing the daughter of raul castro to attend a conference in san francisco. wait until you hear what mariela castro now says about president obama. u.s.-cuba relations in our "strategy session." [ barks ] beneful playful life is made with energy-packed wholesome grains... and real beef and egg. to help you put more play in your day. mcallen, texas. in here, heavy rental equipment in the middle of nowhere, is always headed somewhere. to give it a sense of direction, at&t created a mobile asset solution to protect and track everything. so every piece of equipment knows where it is,

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gross, the u.s. prisoner and alec, you're a cuban-american and studied this issue for a long time and you both have interest. the obama administration granted a visa to a whole bunch of cuban communists to attend a conference in san francisco including the daughter of raul castro, mariela castro. listen to what marco rubio told juan carlos lopez earlier today. >> it is a mistake because she's not just a visitor from cuba. she's an agent of an enemy of the united states, an anti-american regime coming to spread her propaganda and she's an agent of a state-sponsored terrorism. i've joined in a bipartisan protest to the granting of that visa. >> it was a mistake to grant her the visa to visit the united states? >> no, i don't believe it was a

mistake. i believe in freedom of expression, i believe as part of our principles that we allow people to travel freely. she's been here before. i met with her along with many other american officials to talk about her work on hiv/aids and prevention, sex education. she's an interesting person. she doesn't work for the government. her father is the president of the country. i think there's nothing wrong with the exchange. >> she was granted a visa during the bush administration when the president was george w. bush and the vice president was dick cheney and the secretary of state was colin powell. donna's correct. this isn't the first time that the daughter of raul castro was invited and given a visa to come to the united states. >> that should have been for the last time. everybody in cuba works for the government, that's all there is. you take tyranny and make it appear normal. her job is to come here and appear that she's one of us that shares the same interest and concerns and we can't take that

at face value because it's a very different country. >> donna, you're disagreeing not only with alex castellanos, who is a good republican, and reince priebus, chairman of the republican party and debbie wasserman schultz who is also the ircha of the dnc, the democratic national committee and bill nelson, the democratic senator running for re-election. they agree this was a bad idea. >> i don't think they'll expel me from the democratic because i hold opposing views. >> the dnc -- >> debbie is fro florida --? >> and she did it for political reasons? >> and the situation when with i was alvarez' campaign manager. i understand florida politics and cuban politics. we've had 50 years of this embargo and you know what? we have to get rid of the cold

war mentality. i met with the cardinal. i met with dissidents and cuban officials and i met with alan gross. i didn't go as a propaganda regime, and i went there to find out what was going on 90 miles from our border. >> debbie wasserman schultz does what is politically popular in her home state. as far as the embargo in cuba, there are two sides of that issue. there are folks, wolf who think the most powerful weapon we have is freedom and free trade. do you then sell stoves to hitler? do you do trade with a tyrant who will use the benefits of that economic trade to oppress his people? >> play nice with the daughter of raul castro, mariela castro and others help free alan gross the american citizen? two and a half years he's been stuck in cuba for bringing some computers and laptop, banned equipment to help a tiny jewish community in havana right now. is this going to help?

you've spent time with him and he's been jailed for two and a half years. >> alan gross should be let go. we have freed other u.s. aid workers before. i h pretty much had it in my purse. i had my laptop and ipad, and my camcorder. >> but, come on. it is clear this was an atroc y atrocity. alan has suffered a great deal. he's lost over 100 pounds and i met with his wife judy and let's go back to this castro thing. the country is changing and i hope to go back one day. the country is changing. >> if they released alan gross that would help your position right now because it could lead to an improved relationship the u.s. and cuba, and listen to mariela castro, the daughter of

raul castro, the niece of if i da fidel castro quoted as saying, i would vote for president obama. i think he's sincere and speaks from the heart to which the romney campaign put out a statement, president obama should disallow the endorsement of the daughter of the cuban dictator. it is galling that an envoy from a communist regime would come to our country and lecture the american people who to vote for while the communist regime would refuses to hold free and fair elections and systematically violates the human rights of its people. >> some will go crazy with this, see, it does tell you aboutec whatness. there is so little respect for this president that people feel they can push him around. they're using alan gross to use him as a bargaining chip.

they respect strength and they don't see it here. >> we'll continue this conversation and we'll watch what's going on and stay on top of it. i got that letter not that long ago from the cuban interest section here in washington, and they make their case why alan gross deserves to be in jail, but they outline some options for changing. >> if it were in span earn, you'd be el lobo. >> the case of the prominent marine biologist who remains a suspect in the brutal beating of his wife even though he swears he was not involved. stand by.

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democratic and republican leaders on capitol hill are trading jabs about the debt crisis.

cnn's erin burnett is joining us. i know you've been closely following this battle over the debt and what's called sequestration, these across-the-board cuts that would affect the democratic and republican interests. i am not going to back off the sequestration, that's the law we passed. we did it because it wouldn't make things easy for us. it made it so we would have to do something. erin, what is going on here? >> you could look at it two ways. one, it's a line in the sand that would upset republicans. they would say this $1.2 trillion in cuts and instead take more money from social services. harry reid, hero of the day is no. the whole point of the cuts is it would be nasty for everybody and we'll do them exactly as we're scheduled. it's a line in the sand sure to upset republicans and it seems like the right thing to do, and it is sure to upset democrats,

but it's also the right thing to do. here's that. >> it took me eight months for people to actually start fixing the problem. let's start now. why wait until after the election? >> he's talking about the debt ceiling, wolf saying i'm not going wait. i'm not going to wait. we have sequestration and we have bush tax cuts and all of this going away and do you think the lame duck session will be the great bargain that america needs? no. tonight we'll talk about the fact that the debt problem of what we are acutely aware could be so much worse that anyone of us realize, to the tune of four times worse in $66 trillion. we'll explain why tonight on "out front." >> you're getting me nervous just hearing what you're saying. you've got my curiosity, thanks very much. >> all right. a prominent scientist

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>> jack's back with "the cafferty file."

>> the question this hour, wolf, is was it a mistake for democrats to pick north carolina for their convention? it seemed like a good idea at the time, but a lot has changed including the constitutional amendment and same-sex marriage. anything can change the dynamics of the game at any time. i don't know if it was a mistake, but i seriously doubt it was an accident. paul writes from north carolina, jack, you should know better, there are a lot of intelligent, progressive people in my adopted state, but a tea party-elected legislator slipped a gay marriage amendment to appease the base. and when the thoughtful, sensible voters come out in november, the result will look a lot like it did in 2008. kimmy writes from north carolina, as you can see i live in north carolina, i don't want any political convention in my area. any party, democrat or

republican should choose a state where they are loved. we don't love democrats. hi, jack enjoy reading your blog and you don't pull any verbal punches. this time around it could cost obama the presidency. bill writes the convention mistake is not as bad as choosing to run obama again for a second time. only the strong will go into the lion's den. they could have held it on the moon. it doesn't matter. personally, i hear cart again a a good party town. that will be an interesting convention. >> will be with there. tampa, too. >> a mysterious assault in washington, d.c. why did authorities bar a man from his wife's hospital room? stand by. has helped fund economic and environmental recovery.

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i'm back on the road safely. and i saved you money on brakes. that's personal pricing. >> a washington woman brutally beaten within an inch of her life. her husband a marine biologist renowned in his field now a prime suspect. more than a month after it happened, it's an investigation with more questions than answers. lisa sylvester has been investigating. what are you finding out? >> wolf, this is absolutely terrifying and imagine being in your own home and being savagely beaten and having no memory of it. that's the case for one washington woman. police are looking into whether her husband was involved and he tells cnn he would have never done this to his wife. the woman, svetlana guggenheim, who lies in the hospital from a brutal beating. david guggenheim is a prominent

marine biologist featured on "60 minutes." detectives confiscated his phone, computer hard drive, internet router at his home late tuesday. in this interview with cnn, he insists he had nothing to do with her assault. >> reporter: did you have anything to do with it? could you have harmed your wife? >> i would never. there is no history of that. i would never hit her or anyone else. we have a very peaceful marriage. >> reporter: svetlana returned home on april 4th and sent him this text message thanking him for keeping the house clean. her daughter spoke to him on apr april 5th. he showed us the frantic text messages he sent her over the next two days. worried, he cut his trip short and came back to his apartment and what he found was his wife,

lying on the blouse, her head and face badly beaten. >> there was a lot of dried blood on the floor and dried blood on the floor. she had a black eye, she was shaking and semiconscious. >> reporter: svetlana was rushed to the hospital. david remained by her side while she was in intensive care with no memory of what happened. he stayed with her until april 19th and that's when police officers told him he was barred from the hospital. for a month he had no access to her and was prevented from getting updates from doctors. david was under a cloud of suspicion. cnn legal analyst jeffrey toobin explains why. >> if this was an assault the lack of evidence of false entry certainly suggests it was someone she knew and a husband, frankly is always going to be a leadship. >> reporter: and the metro police department said there was a note who said her husband was

involved in her beating. according to court records, quote, it was ms. guggenheim's explicit wishes that the mraf not be permitted to have contact with her. >> i was with her on the 19th. she was in no condition to give any sort of statement on the 19th or before the 19th. i'm very suspicious of this memo. >> reporter: he thinks someone fabricated that memo. the metro police department and the district attorney's office declined to talk to cnn, citing the ongoing investigation. svetlana guggenheim has since sworn in an affidavit her husband was not responsible and has no memory ever telling anyone her husband was involved. david has provided cnn with receipts from his trip to pennsylvania, new york and new jersey during the timeframe when his wife wassa, tacked. train receipts one from a walmart and a starbucks. he remains a suspect, but is now

able to see her in the hospital. >> being able to see her now is -- i mean, it's -- i can't even express to you how -- how emotional it is to -- to be able to see her and care for her. >> reporter: david guggenheim has not been charged, but he hasn't been cleared either. their apartment has surveillance videos which the police now have, but they're not releasing these tapes, wolf? how is she doing? >> she's actually recovering. she's doing fairly well. they still don't know if she has vision in her left eye. she had surgery, but they were able to reduce and there was some brain swelling and brain bleeding and she is well and talking. still not walking yet, and she has a long road to recover. she's been in the hospital six weeks. >> stay on top of it for us. thank you, lisa. you're in "the situation room." happening now, in his first upon television interview, since breaking free, a blind chinese

dissident now telling anderson cooper about his dramatic escape from house arrest and the suffering he endured. plus, the doctor accused of helping the united states find osama bin laden is now ordered to serve 33 years in prison in pakistan. i'll ask the son of pakistan's president about the son that american officials are calling outrageous. the national convention in tampa. it's a real possibility. we'll discuss whether florida is ready for the worst. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com we're starting with a story you will see first here on cnn. a chilling account of captivity,

beatings and suffering beyond imagination. the chinese human rights activist chen guangcheng is speaking out about his years in prison and then under house arrest and he can talk openly about the ordeal only now now that he's free and safe in the united states. our own anderson cooper just spoke with him. anderson is joining us from new york right now. anderson, tell us how it went. >> this is the first time he has spoken and he gave a brief press conference when he first arrived and he's here being sponsored by new york university and he's living down by the nyu campus. he's going to be studying here for the next year. he hasn't sought a political asylum. he does hope at some point to go back to china. whether or not that will be possible, but he is particularly concerned about family members he left behind and his friends and colleagues who helped him escape and get into the u.s. embassy, all of whom he says, are now under the watch and in

some cases in the custody of chinese authorities. his nephew in particular has been charged with intentional homicide for allegedly using a knife to defend himself when chinese security agents burst into his home when they were searching for mr. chen. i talked to him about what it was like before he escaped when he was in that home confinement for some two years. let's watch. >> reporter: when you were released and you were under house arrest, what was that like? >> translator: i want to correct one thing here. when we talked about my situation and the future, let's not use the word house arrest. but instead use the term illegal detention. it's hard for me to describe what it was like during that time, but say my suffering was beyond imagination. >> did it feel like there was an end to it? did it feel like it was going go on and on? >> i didn't see much hope. >> reporter: there's a lot he does not want to talk abouta the this point. it is a very sensitive time for

him. he's concerned about the activists and his nephew and his brother and mother as well as people in his own village and there are reports that the village is under lockdown by those upset that he was able to escape in the first place. >> is he physically okay? >> he's in a wheelchair because he hurt his foot while escaping, but he doesn't seem to be in great physical condition, actually. he had apparently had been had been nauseous and sick as he drove to go to the interview on the flight over from china. he apparently was also throwing up. so he does not seem to be in great shape and after a certain point he sort of said that he was tired and wanted to stop talking. so we ultimately ended the interview, but he certainly hopes to get his foot recovered over the next month or so here. >> he hopes to stay here at least a year at nyu, is that right?

>> he didn't give a length of time. he will be studying here for a year. he's a self-taught lawyer and his wife read to him from books and he's hoping to learn english as well. >> good luck to him. anderson, thanks very much for that report. anderson will obviously have a lot more in-depth and more on this interview later tonight on "ac 360," 8:00 p.m. eastern only here on cnn. now to negotiations about iran's nuclear program. we are told significant differences remain between the world powers after two days of talks in baghdad. new talks now planned for moscow. will iran give ground? what's going on? let's bring in cnn's hala gorani. you had an exclusive interview, i watched it with the chief negotiator. you had that interview on cnn international. what's the latest? what are you hearing? is he hopeful there can be a

deal? >> reporter: well, essentially when i asked him if he was hopeful for as far as the next meeting is concerned, next month in moscow june 16th -- or june 17th, i should say, he said a few conditions need to be met including the fact that iran is essentially the victim of measures of punitive measures and measures that he disagrees with including sanctions, for instance, against iran. here's what he told me when i asked him whether or not that the p5 plus 1, the five members plus germany can come to some sort of agreement on the country's nuclear program, here's what he told me. >> we believe that as we have always said the thing which could break this deadlock is the attitude and the strategy of cooperation. i have always said that the

strategy of pressure would make the strategy of talks to come to the end. the time for pressure and the strategy of pressure is over. >> reporter: all right. there you have saeed jalili, iran's chief nuclear negotiator, speaking to me from baghdad two hours ago. one of the sticking points is iran's ability and right to enrich uranium at 20%, high-grade fuel enrichment. i asked him about that. i said, look, what would it take for the p5 plus 1 to stop enriching uranium at that high level and he defended iran's right to enrich at 20%. he also said it is something that is useful to iran, and that it is for peaceful purposes and p5 plus 1 says iran is conducting this nuclear fuel in order to develop nuclear weaponry and that is the big

concern for that. now we look forward to next month in moscow and whether the two sides will be together and we heard from kathryn ashton and significant differences remain and there's hope that the two sides can get it together. hal gorani, reporting to us from carry owe. thanks very much. >> biwa is speaking soon at a wind manufacturer in newton promoting his energy plant. he's pushing congress to make progress on what he calls his to-do list. we'll monitor what the president has to say. if the president doesn't go after mitt romney this hour, you can certainly bet he will later this evening during a campaign event at the iowa state fairgrounds. our white house correspondent dan lothian reports. >> reporter: the iowa state fairgrounds is a popular destination for presidential candidates and as president obama returns to fire up his

supporters, his re-election campaign released a new web ad, reminding americans as what some considered a gap during a speech last summer. >> we can add taxeres on people. >> corporations are people, my friend. >> all he has to offer now is tired political attack with no record to run on and no new ideas and flailing attacks like these. it's no surprise that the obama campaign has had such a tough week. the gloves have come off even though polls show an almost even race between president obama and mitt romney. at a campaign fund r-raising ray tuesday night, he had rom fee's private sector experience. >> he said my 25 years in the

private sector gives me a special understanding of how the economy works. why is he peddling the same bad ideas that brought the country to the brink of collapse. >> at the air force academy where he touted the policy achievements, the president took a shot at romney and ending the war in afghanistan. >> he said the war was tragic in iraq and he won't set a timeline for ending the war in afghanistan. >> a report from dan lothian traveling with the president. we will bring you important news if that develops. stand by. florida is preparing to host the republican national convention at the end of august. there is a big concern i have to tell you about. what happens? what happens if a hurricane hits the state at the same time? stand by, new information coming in. a possible breakthrough in the disappearance of a boy 33 years ago. we have new information on that as well.

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jack cafferty is here with "the cafferty file." jack? >> five months to go before election day, there is one thing we can all count on, polls. there will be lots and lots and lots of polls. some of us in the media tend to hyperventilate about the latest polls, their significance and what we can read into them, but it's worth remembering that sometimes the polls are just numbers. "the los angeles times" has a very smart piece that lays out some rules about how to be smart when it comes to the polls. to begin with, don't forget the limits of national polling. while presidential elections are fought out state by state in the electoral college, most polls are nationwide and it's too expensive to keep polling all of the battleground states individually which is eventually where the race is won or lost. while national polls can be helpful, they can hide important changes at the state level. next up, don't obsess about

small shifts in the horse race numbers. small polls from obama or romney from week to week, leakly the result of national changes in the statistical sample. instead, pay attention to what issues are moving voters. another hint, be skeptical of the big swings that don't happen in the election campaign. also, don't miss apples and oranges. each poll does things differently which could explain significant change done by different pollsters even in the same state. "the l.a. times" piece wisely suggests don't look for a poll that supports what you already think. as the saying goes, some people use data the way a drunk usesa i lamppost, for support rather than illumination. here's the question. how much faith do you have in the polls? go to cnn.com/caffertyfile, post a comment on my blog or go to "the situation room's" facebook page. a little primmer in polls.

>> excellent advice. sounds like somebody has been studying on the political polls for decades. nice job. >> very nice. we're headed into another hurricane season in the u.s. and the u.s. officials are now predicting an about average number of storms this year. we can expect as many as 15 named storms in the atlantic, up to eight hurricanes and one to three of them could be major hurricanes as maniesa 18 named storms for the eastern pacific and five of those hurricanes could be major storms. we've seen some tropical storms formeden threatening mexico. chad myers is watching all of this. it just issued the latest advisory. what did it say? >> it said the category 3 hurricane would make landfall

around the west coast of mexico. here's manzanilla and puerto vallarta. somewhere in between those two towns making landfall in one of those towns as a near-category 2 hurricane. goes to 3 and slows down when it makes landfall. then, wolf, the problem is it stops, goes around and goes back out to sea. that stop and turn around time could cause severe flooding in western mexico. there could be a foot of rainfall and that could cause flash floolding and we saw what happened with irene and how much damage there, in pennsylvania by flooding, but not wind damage. sometimes flooding could be much worse. >> as soon as we know we're in the hurricane season, one of the things that went through my mind and a lot of political reporters, the republican national convention scheduled for tampa in the last week in

august and that's the height of the hurricane season. what could happen if the storm were to hit that area? is the state ready? >> the state is ready. there's no question, pinellas county all of the way through the temperatura bay area would be ready for something like that. you'll put 50,000 extra people into one city that could be evacuated and it's hard to do that when you are trying to move residents away from the water. what we have down here already something circulating could be called berl, and we had albert on and didn't do anything except spin in the water. something like a charlie, that's what their biggest concern would be, a storm that comes up and into the gulf of mexico. super warm water by the middle of august and september and drive itself out into tampa bay. that's what charlie tried to do, but at the last minute charl ch turned around and hit punta

goreda. i was down there. the boogest problem would be saltwater and surge flooding as it would put the water into the bay and the water would have to go up these tributaries and a lot of downtown tampa and the areas around the air force base all would be under water. this would be a significantly high on the odds and maybe one in 500 chance that something like this, that big of a storm would happen on that date, but certainly the officials down there are thinking about it and preparing for it as well, wolf. >> i know they're thinking about it. i wonder, i don't know the answer to this, if the republican national committee thought about that as a factor when picking tampa as the site of the republican convention in the end of august. i'll do some checking, unless you have the answer, chad. >> we thought about it in the weather center, charlotte where the other one would be, probably has a better chance of some type of tornado or severe weather event than tampa would have with a hurricane, but hurricanes are so large and can affect so many people with wind and water,

anywhere among the east coast and the gulf coast, all vulnerable. since i will number tampa and tornadoes and i hope there's beautiful, beautiful weather for both of these political conventions. >> me, too. >> thanks very much. mitt romney may have had a problem in his hands -- >> new video of george zimmerman just released in the trayvon martin case. up next, why it may help answer questions about his past relationship with police. stay with us. you're in "the situation room." [ thunk ] sweet! [ male announcer ] the solid thunk of the door on the jetta. thanks, mister! [ meow ] [ male announcer ] another example of volkswagen quality. that's the power of german engineering. right now lease the 2012 jetta for $159 a month.

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the details about the trayvon martin case. lisa sylvester is monitoring that and other top stories in "the situation room." wolf, a videotape shows a bandaged george zimmerman three days after killing trayvon marten could shed light as neighborhood watch volunteer. >> he wrote in saying he was disgusted by what he saw on ride alongs with police, but by the end of the year he was praising them.

he's charged with second-degree murder in the unarmed teen's death. and facebook's stock is struggling to break even on wall street. it's down 13% from last week's much-anticipated initial public offering. this as the giant is embroiled in a class action lawsuit alleging that morgan stanley sharinged privileged information with key investors. facebook tells cnn the lawsuit is without merit. and terrifying dash cam video reportedly taken from an suv driving along a russian highway when an oncoming tractor traylor tips over and slams head-on into it. the driver apparently took that turn too quickly and luckily everyone sur viefred. that is terrifying and it's a little hard to watch that video. >> very hard to watch, but i don't know if we can do it. i would like to see that again. can we cue that up? >> whoa! >> yea. again, we have to tell our viewers, no one, fortunately,

was seriously injured. >> i'll drive slowly around those curves from now on. it's a story that's angering lots of americans. the pakistani doctor who helped the united states find osama bin laden sentenced to 30-plus years. i'll ask the pakistani president's son. he is here. do police finally have their hands on the man who may have killed this boy? but did you know they're good for you too? they're high in vitamins and potassium. and idaho potatoes are now certified to carry the heart checkmark from the american heart association for foods low in saturated fat and cholesterol. so they're good for my family, and for yours. heart smart idaho potatoes. always look for the grown in idaho seal.

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here's cnn's reza saya. >> reporter: it comes with one important caveat and that is it was handed down by a tribal court in pakistan's tribal region in afghanistan where laws are very different. dr. afridi didn't have a lawyer and couldn't defend himself. and these courts are run by tribal officials who play the role of judge and jury. human rights groups have often said these trials are not fair. dr. afridi has a good chance of overturning this sentence if he appeals it in a civilian court. the sentence does sound serious. the doctor is in jail, but it is not clear what it means in the long run and if the sentence will stick, but if you take a step back it's another bone of contention and there are many when it comes to the u.s. and

pakistan. washington says this doctor should be rewarded, not punished. in the meantime, pakistan still maintaining the blockade on the two nato supply routes in pakistan that's been the case ever since nato air strikes last year killed 24 pakistani soldiers. relations so frosty between washington and islamabad last weekend at the nato summit in chicago u.s. president barack obama refusing to meet pakistan's president zardari one-on-one. these are two countries who say they're partners in the fight against extremism, but they certainly don't always act like it. >> reza sayah, thanks very much for that report. reporting from islamabad. >> bilwal bhutto zardari and head of the people's party and son of the president of pakistan, also son of the late prime minister benazir bhutto. thanks very much for coming in. >> thank you for having me, wolf. >> you understand the outrage that someone who helped the

united states, killed bin laden who killed 3,000 americans, you understand the outrage of what's going on right now? >> yes, wolf, i do appreciate the outrage. he tried to kill multiple times to kill my mother and he was successful. as far as afridi is concerned, it is against the law in any country to cooperate with foreign intelligence. a u.s. court sentenced him to life imprisonment for spying for israel. we have an independent judiciary which they restored and i have no control over their outcome. >> you believe bin laden is responsible for killing your mother? >> that's not what i said. there is islamic extremism that are both equally responsible for the assassination of my mother benazir bhutto. it sabotaged my mother's security when he knew there was

going to be attacks and he should have been eliminated. >> going back to afridi, there is a million there ares for every year for that he is held, given the anger a lot of americans are feeling for pakistan. >> it is unfortunate that our relationship has deteriorated so much over the past year. we have a series of crises, where a cia agent shot and killed two pakistani civilians, to the nato attack that left 24 pakistani soldiers dead which did not result in an apology, but i am confident that we will work together to resolve our issues because we have a common goal that we must achieve together. >> you said in a speech in new york and i'll put it up on the screen that says the unilateral

action by the united states made many in pakistan question the united states that it consider pakistan our military ally in the common war on terrorism and extremism. bin laden was hiding out there presumably for years. someone was protecting him in pakistan and they weren't going trust the pakistani government with this information. they just went in and killed him because the suspicion that's widely held that there were elements in the pakistani military protecting bin laden in abbottabad. >> they found a treasure trove of evidence and not a single piece was evidence was found to suggest that bin laden was with the pakistani government. >> that compound was a while away from what is considered the west point of pakistan, that compound. >> he was hiding in plain sight. he was in the perfect place to hide. >> you think no one knew bin

laden was hiding there? >> we'll come to the truth. >> let's talk about your personal experiences. your mom, your mother, benazir bhutto was sitting in that chair and it wasn't all that long ago and it was september 26, 2007, when she was here in washington and she was about to go back to pakistan, and i discouraged her. i said to her, i think it's dangerous for her to go back to pakistan and we had this exchange. let me play it for you. >> your family unfortunately has a tragic history of assassination. >> i know the past has been tragic, but i'm an optimist by nature. i put my faith in the people of mack stan and i put my faith in god, and i feel that what i am doing is for a good cause to save pakistan from extremists and militants. i know the dangers out there, but i'm prepared to take those risks. >> you see your mother and only a couple of months later she was killed. she went back for the reasons

that you know. what goes through your mind when you see that, because frankly, i'm a little worried about you going back to pakistan myself? >> well, wolf, i am confident the pakistani government will provide me with the adequate security, unlike the government at the time that sabotaged my mother's security in pakistan. >> when you say the government, that was president pervez musharraf? >> you blame him for your mother's death? >> he murdered my mother. >> you go that far? >> he was aware of the threats. he had threatened her himself in the past. he said your security is directly linked to our security and ohe pulled the wool over ou eyes and my mother started to speak out more against him and the security decreased. >> so what about you? what do you plan on doing now? >> i am the chairman of the pakistan people's party. i did not campaign in the last

election. i went to university. i don't feel like at the moment i have the mandate to take a particularly active role. i look forward to campaigning in the next election and playing a larger role then. >> you hope to go into politics? >> yes. >> would you some day like to be the leader of pakistan? >> i would like to help my people in any way i can, wolf. it's difficult times in pakistan and we would like to help. >> be careful when you go back. thanks very much for joining us. >> we're also working new developments right now in a 33-year-old mystery. the possible killer of a boy now in custody. stand by. we're in "the situation room." ♪ ♪ ♪ i tell my students on day one, a picture is worth a thousand words. a satellite is worth a million dollars. >> my name is sarah parkak and creator of archaeologist. satellite imagery much more so

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>> there's a major new development in a 1979 cold case that raised awareness about missing children. police in new york are getting

ready to hold a news conference on the etan patz. what's the latest information we're getting? >> reporter: we heard first thing this morning, wolfe, that according to ray kelly, the police commissioner here, that the man had implicated himself in the case and then a law enforcement source told us that, in fact, this man, a man by the name of pedro hernandez who used to own a convenience store in etan patz's neighborhood had confessed that he had killed etan patz and that he'd strangled the boy. ray kelly would have something to say about this, the police commissioner, some time later today and we expect to hear more about the developments of this case later tonight. this is a man who owned a store in the very same neighborhood and we also know, according to sources, that this same man was interviewed by police briefly many years ago and may even have

made similar claims back then, but they're talking to him again after that search about a month ago that turned up nothing in that basement in etan patz' neighborhood, but that in turn, led to police getting a call from a confidant of mr. hernandez who claimed that he was confessing to this matter and so police re-interviewed him. so we're waiting to see exactly where this investigation is now going. wolf? >> whatever i read about this over the past couple of days suggest that this individual now under suspicion, did provide some contradictory information, if you will, and his whole story, even though he may be confessing, allegedly is not necessarily completely panning out. >> reporter: well, we are getting conflicting information. some law enforcement sources are telling us that there seems to be very solid information, very good information while others are waving a yellow flag saying the jury is still out saying the

jury is sti there is skepticism and we're awaiting to hear what evidence they have. >> we'll stay on top of the story, and i know you will, as well. thank you. jack cafferty is standing by with his answers to "the cafferty file," also, david letterman like you've never seen him, talking politics.

arizona's top election o

initial now says he's sorry if he embarrassed his state on casting doubt on president obama's birth certificate, but that's not putting the so-called birther controversy to rest. brian is looking at this, and some are refusing to let go and that could be a problem for the mitt romney dacampaign. what's going on? >> reporter: polls have shown some significant segments of the republican party still at least have questions over whether president obama is qualified for his office, but one question remains. will the top party leadership clamp down on the birther talk? funny, it doesn't look like a dead horse, but some republicans are still beating it. arizona's secretary of state recently threatened to leave president obama off the state ballot in november unless officials in hawaii authenticated the president's birth certificate. ken bennett, mitt romney's campaign co-chair in arizona

later said he got the necessary information and put it to rest, but his fellow arizonan joe arpaio who calls himself america's toughest sheriff, called a criminal investigation into the certificate. >> we believe probable cause exists indicating that forgery and fraud may have been committed. >> reporter: in iowa, the state gop wrote a clause into its proposed platform calling on presidential candidates to show proof of being natural-born citizens, a move a party official acknowledges is a shot at president obama. >> there are many republicans that feel barack obama is not a match rl-born citizen because his father was not an american when he was born and therefore feel according to the constitution he's not qualified to be president. >> reporter: three republicans in congress from battleground states have raised the birther issue recently. cnn and other news outlets have

investigated this a lot and found nothing that would disqualify president obama from his office, but some republican officials who have raised this have said they did so because some of their constituents demanded it. analyst ron brownstein said it collectively hurts mitt romney. >> mitt romney wants the election to be about one question and one question only, are you better off than four years ago? >> reporter: what are top republicans doing about it? >> the party chairman has said this. >> i've been pretty clear for over a year or however long i've been chairman, this issue is a distraction. >> reporter: i asked about the back room talk. >> internally is there serious backlash to the people doing this by top party leaders right now? >> they're not focused on it. i think that if more elected officials would start to talk about this issue, sure, republican leaders would have them to knock it off. >> i contacted the romney campaign and asked them if mitt romney or anyone else on his

team would make a concerted effort to smack down the birther talk within the party, they did point in a recent interview, romney said the citizenship test has been passed. he believes the president was born in the united states. wolf? >> this has cost one republican candidate in this election cycle. what's going on there, brian? >> reporter: that's right. a man named jim pendergraff. he won the "charlotte observer" newspaper, an important endorsement but later this month they took back that endorsement after pendergraph says he has reason to be suspicious whether president obama was born in the u.s. many republican circles, this is still considered a fringe issue, crazy talk among fringe republicans but it won't go away. >> thanks very much, brian. it's david letterman like you've probably never seen him before right here on cnn. he's opening up to regis philbin, who's in for our own

piers morgan, talking politics and much more. >> now, you see, over the years, talk show hosts have not gotten involved in politics because they fear -- >> it's all different now. >> -- if one portion of your audience or republican or democrat, they don't like what you're saying, they'll tune you out. >> that's right. >> you don't care? >> i know what your point is, and i have been guilty of appearing to be playing partisan politics. however, i just like to say t t that, for the record, i am a registered independent. you go where the material takes you. poor bill clinton, no president this i'm aware of, got hammered harder than bill president -- bill clinton over the monica lewinsky situation. we beat up on him. we still use him as a reference. and then we were desperate. we thought, well, this was so easy and then we got george bush, and within a matter of days we realize, our prayers had been answered. he's just as good in terms of

material. so, we -- it may appear to people that we have a slant one way or the other. but, if a guy, you know, drops his dog or a guy straps his dog to the roof of his car or if a guy gets a shoe thrown at him, well, this is where the material is going to be. >> important note, you can see the full letterman interview tuesday night, 9 p.m. eastern, regis philbin filling in for piers morgan. you want to see this. it's very, very good. let's go to jack for "the cafferty file" check. >> you could make argument politicians in this country make the greatest contribution to our comedians. not the public. the comedians. question this hour is, how much faith do you put in the polls? a lot of them coming between now and november. brian, i struggle with the ability of the pollster to be unbiased.

everybody has an opinion. people want to be on the winning team. know their candidate is on the top of the polls. it makes them feel cld in main stream america. any poll can be manipulated to achieve desired outcome in a race that's basically 50/50. steve in illinois writes, i hate to say it, but a lot. whoever's ahead after labor day will win. i hear that's almost always been the case. lisa in connecticut. there are importances are about 50/50, plus or minus 25%. dan in new mexico, jack, not much in any short period of time. but various credible polls over a period of several months, maybe. it depends on the questions and how they are asked and who is the polling organization working for. hardly any faith at all. looks like a person could make up poll figures to suit themselves. who's to say they don't? i wonder who they ask, because they never ask me. pete in florida writes, one poll, no faith at all. a lot of ongoingpolls, quite a lot of faith. they're pretty good at tracking trends.

gumpy old dude writes, let me see, my former stock broker became a weatherman. when that didn't work out, he then became a pollster. do you see a pattern here? terry in virginia, zip, nada, nothing. long live president dewy. if you want to read more g to the blog, cnn.com/caffertyfile or through our facebook page. [ man ] when i went to get my first new car, my dad said to get a subaru because they last. ♪ he drives a legacy, but i'm nothing like him. i got the new impreza. maybe i should have picked a different color... [ male announcer ] the all-new subaru impreza. experience love that lasts. ♪

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days of waiting for ketchup to come out of the bottle may soon be over. >> reporter: who among us hasn't been guilty of salt on a catch

chup bottle has technology caught up with ketchup. >> look at that slide. amazing. >> reporter: our long national nightmare is over. mechanical engineering students at m.i.t. have come up with a super slippery coating that makes anything from ketchup to mayonnaise leap out of the bottle coated with a stuff. they call it liquiglide. >> it works on everything we've tried so far. >> glass, plastic, metal. >> reporter: even tony soprano would be beholden to these student. look how annoyed tony gets at the dreaded ketchup clog. >> if he starts talking homicide -- blooep. >> reporter: sure, there are techniques, ranging from the "goodfellas" bottle roll to the heinz 57 bottle trick and gently slap it on the sweet spot where the 57 is imprinted near the neck. but liquiglide could make those

tactics obsolete. the idea is to apply the coating during manufacturing. they say it's nontoxic. >> this is stuff people already eat in some foods. it's perfectly safe. >> reporter: they've already applied for a bunch of patents. what are the secret ingredients? >> well -- >> reporter: well, they wouldn't be secret if they liqui glided out of their mouths. they are already talking to bottlers and food companies. we asked the folks at foellks i they were in contact with the inventors. they crust said they love the idea. despite rave reviews -- >> that's amazing. >> reporter: -- there are traditionalists. >> i don't feel it would have the same satisfaction if it poured out that quickly. ♪ anticipation >> reporter: yeah, well, guess what the young inventors at

m.i.t. are anticipating. do you think this going to turn you into millionaires? >> i think so. >> reporter: they will have a slogan, liquiglide, let it slide. no more banging with shoes or mallets or sucking up ketchup. for traditional bottles, liqui glide could mean their last gasp. jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> love that report. i can relate. thanks very much for joining us. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." the news continues next. good evening, i'm john king. tonight honest by about outrageous honesty from the man who leads the united nations. at least 10,000 people already dead and ban ki-moon tells cnn, quoted, there's no plan b to stop the killing in syria. battle for battlegrounds. president obama in barack obama, mitt romney in pennsylvania and half a dozen new state polls that give us a new glimpse at the electoral college tug of